GTD - PRESS RELEASE

Ray Christopher has advised me, in my role as GTD 40 Car Club Chairman, that he has officially terminated his licence agreement with GTD Coventry for the manufacture of GTD 40 cars. The Club expects to be able to announce details of a new licencee very shortly who will be taking over the manufacturing licence and putting the car back into production.

Watch this space for further details.

regards

Roy Smart

[ November 01, 2002: Message edited by: RoySmart ]

[ November 01, 2002: Message edited by: Brian ]

It sounds good, but the only negative thing is that it would be a shame if the GTD Club becomes more commerical than netural and helpful. With different people jockeying to be suppliers etc. I'd hate to see the openness and sharing of ideas to be dropped because of commerical gain. Right now it seems the club is open to all GT40s and is a strong presence, I'd hate to see that change and focus only on GTDs.

Ron

I'm confused. I can understand Ray and Graham pulling the GTD license from Roger Marsh, as there was no sales, service or parts to speak of. But I don't understand how an enthusiast's club, which is typically a non-profit organization, intends to administer the production, sale and servicing of GTD parts and supplies that are manufactured by vendors who seek a profit, particularly when different suppliers will be competing for a overlapping pieces of the GTD market.

Would somebody please tell me how this affects Mark Sibley and Frank Catt, as those two seem to be supplying parts to GTD owners, as well as to others.

Now I'm even more confused because the text of the press release is gone...

I think this is a misunderstanding. It reads to me that the Club is just going to announce a new licencee and that this new licencee will manufacture the cars - it does not say this is the Club. I have no prior knowledge and may be wrong on this impression but I doubt very much the Club is commercially involved.

Regards
Dave C

Well, we certainly did not mean to confuse anyone! The GTD 40 Car Club is a non-profit car club that furthers interest and activities associated with the GT 40 and the various replica makes available. The club is not set up to, and would not wish to, become involved in commercial activities such as car manufacturing or parts distribution. We will always leave that to the many expert commercial companies in the market.

If a deal is concluded between Ray Christopher and a new licencee to continue and improve the GTD brand, we would see this as a potentially positive move for all our members and the GT 40 movement in general. Our role as a club will be to inform our members and the GT 40 community of developments as they happen, so you will hear about it from us here first.

The positions of Frank Catt (Wealden Engineering) and Mark Sibley (MDA) are unchanged. Neither company is officially linked to GTD and this remains the case. Frank and Mark fulfill a role more akin to the many specialist tuners and suppliers who support major brands like Ford, GM, Subaru etc. without official manufacturers sanction and do a great job of upgrading and improving their standard products.

MDA have declared on the Forum that they are close to producing a whole car which, they claim, will be superior in some respects to a GTD. We look forward to Mark submitting a car to the club for a full back to back road test against a GTD so that we can substantiate these claims. Should make interesting reading as we now have GPS based data recorders suitable to fully figure both cars for acceleration, top speed, braking and lateral G. This means we can provide data and not just subjective claims.

2003 certainly looks like it's going to be interesting!

Andrew.

Will the new franchise holder build the car/chassis/components themselves or contract the work out? I know of an outstanding fabricator (ex F1 McLaren, Indycars Newman-Haas, Lister) who might be interested.

[ November 03, 2002: Message edited by: Jasper ]

This has got to be good news for GT40 replicas. More parts/kit manufacturers/retailers means more choice for owners, therefore forcing better standards and competitive prices.

IMO the GT40 'scene' desperatley needs companies who can supply parts for a reasonable cost in a reasonable time, without any bullshit or empty promises.

With regard to the club makng a profit on parts, I hope that any such profit will be used for development of existing components and research of new. As long as prices are reasonable, promises are kept & delivery times are quick. I'm sure all involved will benefit.